1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to clinical examination and the examination of food qualities, particularly the examination of food poisoning or the detection and identification of EHEC or VTEC in the examination of diarrhea.
2. Disclosure of the Related Art
EHEC (or VTEC) as a causative bacterium for enteric hemorrhagic E. coli symptoms is found to be a microorganism causing not only food poisoning represented by hemorrhagic E. coli symptoms but also the hemolytic uremic syndrome as a severe disorder in infants, and in recent years, the detection of this microorganism came to be regarded as important in clinical examination.
Major materials to be examined in the examination of EHEC (or VTEC) are patient' stools, foods, or water (drinking water, river water etc.) collected around the patient. To detect and identify EHEC or VTEC from these samples, the procedures of direct separation and culture, a culture test for primary confirmation, a culture test for secondary confirmation, an agglutination test by anti-serum and a toxin production test should be conducted. However, the time required for each of these steps for culture ranges 18 to 24 hours, and the required total time is 3 to 4 days, so the examination is very time-consuming. Accordingly, the present-day method of examining EHEC (or VTEC) lacks in rapidness and simplicity, thus failing to serve as a practical means. Meanwhile, it was revealed that the serotype of EHEC (or VTEC) is typically O157:H7, which accounts for 80% or more of enteric hemorrhagic E. coli symptoms.